I&#39;ve been downloading songs, movies, and programs from the Internet for a few years, even before having broadband access. Granted, in those days of my 56k it was much more difficult than it is now. But all I ever hear from the RIAA and the MPAA are about copyright infringement, how we&#39;re &#39;stealing&#39;, how very bad it all is. Well, personally, I think that&#39;s all bullsh*t. My reasons for downloading may very well be different from the rest of the world, but let me go back to when I became a fan of the MP3.

Let&#39;s face it folks - radio sucks large amounts of @ss now. Gone are the days of the DJ who would sneak in a few of his favorite cuts during his show, even though they were from a largely unknown band, or it was a track on an album that wasn&#39;t set up to be released as a single. They had a love of music and wanted to share it. We used to have a DJ with a midnight to 2am radio show, and during his 2 hours I would hear some of the most amazing stuff. I&#39;d even tape his show, because he didn&#39;t talk over songs, and then scurry out days later and buy the stuff I heard. Then, of course, I had friends would turn me onto obscure bands (I&#39;m 33 people, trust me when I say obscure *lol*), we&#39;d make each other tapes, and it was filesharing in its grass roots. Even a phrase as simple as "Wanna borrow my cd?" is filesharing, when you get down to brass tax.

ClearChannel Communications have basically ruined radio for the person like me. We want new music, not what you chose to spoonfeed us. Even our &#39;alternative&#39; radio station, which broadcast from Pittsburgh PA (and me living in Ohio I can barely get the signal) has gotten a little predictable with their rotation schedule - probably because it&#39;s all programmed in. Why even have DJs if you&#39;re going to suck the musical life out of them to have them play songs on the approved format list? It makes me sick.

Thanks in part to Napster during its heyday, I have been turned onto some older, &#39;classic&#39; rock type music that I would have never just gone out and purchased otherwise. I am a die hard Pink Floyd fan now. Zeppelin, the Stones, the Doors, Hendrix... that&#39;s all good stuff. There are so many bands that I listen to now that I know before I wouldn&#39;t have bothered with, and it was because of filesharing. I was able to look for a certain artist, download some songs from them, and you betta believe I have that stuff in my CD collection now. You now sometimes hear a song on radio, and if you rush out to buy the CD based on that one song, what a disappointment it is to find that it&#39;s the ONLY good song on the entire disk. And ya think the store is taking it back? Doubtful.

Filesharing of music, to a true music lover, opens their mind up to new stuff, plain and simple. The RIAA whines and complains about sales being low and they want to blame it on filesharing when the real monster clogging up their money wheels are themselves. What happened to the days when people formed a band, fought like hell to get their music heard by record execs, and finally, after years of struggle, got a break? Thanks to shows like American Idol, Making the Band, and Star Search, they don&#39;t happen often enough.

People sharing their music files is what has made me open up my mind to a world of music I would have never heard otherwise. Won&#39;t get any apology outta me for that, nope, never.

I didn&#39;t get movies to watch until probably 2 years ago. I, like everyone else in America, trudged out to the theaters to see movies. Our local theater has THE worst seats, horrible sound, and after seeing "Girl, Interrupted" at this theater, I decided to never, ever go back. I found a theater a few months later that is a 30 minute drive from me. It&#39;s clean, has stadium seating, widescreens in every theater, the armrest flip up (for improved snuggling), they have videogames, and you can butter your own popcorn&#33; I was at this place 2 or 3 times a week seeing movies, sometimes the same one more than once if it was good.

In 2001, I saw previews at apple.com for all these movies that were coming out around the time I was going to have major surgery. I was off my feet for about 4 months. That&#39;s when I started downloading movies. Most of the time, the quality isn&#39;t all that great (if it&#39;s a movie with special effects, forget downloading, I&#39;m at the theater&#33, but if you are desperate to see something it&#39;s a quick fix. I feel that people want the freedom to be able to watch a movie when they want to, and without leaving the house. I tell ya... I think if new movies were released on the Internet for a nominal fee for a digital &#39;ticket&#39;, there would be less downloading. I&#39;m waiting for Blockbuster to hop on the bandwagon and find some system that will let people rent a movie by streaming it to their PC. But that&#39;s probably a long ways off.

Yeah I&#39;m rambling.... cuz I just looked at all these posts from people talking about how their ISPs are sending them letters about what they download and it makes me sick. If these companies were still in it for reasons other than money, this wouldn&#39;t be an issue. I honestly don&#39;t believe that the majority of people are downloading for the sole purpose of &#39;stealing&#39;, I guess I believe that because I&#39;m not. I downloaded Donnie Darko around the holidays last year, watched it 8 or 9 times, then bought the DVD so I could watch it with the Director&#39;s Commentary enabled....

I&#39;d just like to keep believing that most people downloading are just like me - borrowing something for a short time. Anyways... just my lengthy rant. I&#39;m off to watch "Half Past Dead" ......on DVD.

I rented a movie some months back from a local video store and turned it in a couple of days late.
Just received a letter from the store telling me I owe them Euro 267.00 for a couple of days, no more then 2. They said that I owe them this because I failed to pay the late fee when i returned the movie.

I received the letter about 3 weeks ago, and it stated that if I did not pay the fee by the middle of last February(Ireceived the letter about 2-3 weeks after the deadline) that they will forward the bill to their lawyer and I would also pay that fee.

I may be looking at Euro 500.00 or more for the 2 day late return of a kids movie we rented for my 4 year old.
I make a decent wage but Euro 250.00 a day is a bit steep for me.

On average I pay about Euro 10.00 per movie I rent cause I can never seem to turn it in until it is a day late.

This is by no means a convienient thing for me so dl&#39;ing the movie is what I do.

My reason for downloading is largely the same as FreakGrrl&#39;s, I listen/watch something and if I like it, i either pop down the shops or over to a friendly internet shop.
I totally agree with the comments about what&#39;s happened to the DJ&#39;s, and Iím on the other side of the big pond, we get talking over tracks, DJ&#39;s trying to be funny but arenít etc and it put me off FM radio altogether. The BBC has a few good digital channels (which are also on the net - the DAB tuners still cost way too much) where they play less commercial rubbish and go out and find bands to play.
As for the cost of CD&#39;s Films etc, they are far too high; if the price was dropped more people would buy them.
A problem for everywhere but the US is that the movies are not realised worldwide at the same time, if this was done, there would be much less downloading going on. I, like everyone else, prefer to watch a film at the cinema or on the TV and not the PC.
The movie industry needs to wake up and see that we are now a global society and the USA is no longer so far removed that they can continue with this practice

Originally posted by FreakGrrl@12 April 2003 - 20:30I&#39;m waiting for Blockbuster to hop on the bandwagon and find some system that will let people rent a movie by streaming it to their PC. But that&#39;s probably a long ways off.

I always thought the same thing about music. The RIAA should have tried to work with Napster to develop a system where people could pay a buck or two for each song they download, and have it charged to a credit card or receive a bill in the mail (of course songs that are designated radio &#39;hits&#39; should always be free). But no, they&#39;re greedy and they expect everyone to pay &#036;20 for a CD that might only have one or two decent songs on it. That&#39;s why I started downloading. I even made a personal rule that I try to follow... if I download 3 songs from any given CD and I listen to them often and enjoy them, I&#39;ll buy the CD. I do this to support the artist, not the RIAA.

As for movies, with two kids under age three and a job with a &#39;flexible&#39; schedule, I never know when I&#39;m going to have time to watch one. I like the convenience of being able to burn my own VCD&#39;s so I can watch them if and when I have the time. Like you said, if Blockbuster (or anyone else) ever introduces an online rental system I&#39;d probably use it.

I also download games, because I think they&#39;re way overpriced and I usually only play each one a couple of times before I get bored with it. I&#39;m not paying &#036;50 for a few days of entertainment. If I find a game I really like, I&#39;ll buy it.

There are several threads running concurrently in the forum which are by and large all about this very subject. This one seems to be a little more level-headed so I&#39;m happy to join the fray...

Prior to the widespread availability if the cassette recorder it simply wasn&#39;t possible for the enduser to duplicate the product with anything approaching the ease we now enjoy.
The entertainment industry ( who collectively look much like my avatar ) completely ignored the technology advances that were becoming available to the public and also the public&#39;s willingness to develop and exploit said technology.
This arrogance and blind stupidity has now turned around and bitten them in the ass and they are scrambling to find a way to ameliorate the pain.
The temporary fix is to try to enforce outdated concepts of copyright protection and other legal precepts which basically don&#39;t work in this digital age.
A new way will have to be created that incorporates the fact that the general populace now has access to the technology that heretofore only the industry controlled. As it stands now the entertainment industry is predicated on the assumption that they controlled the content because they controlled the way the content was delivered to the enduser. This is obviously no longer true.
I enjoy the big screen experience and am willing to pay for it when I choose. It&#39;s too bad that most movie theaters seem to have learned their customer treatment policies from airlines.
I&#39;d like to be able to support artists without supporting a bloated infrastructure which really only exists to propogate itself, not the art it sells.
I don&#39;t enjoy being a "pirate", but until I&#39;m offered a way of being a "good citizen" that isn&#39;t so offensive as the current situation, then a pirate I shall remain.

i download for simulor reason just as most people, but to say your not stealing etc it is wrong becouse we are what you/we are doing is against the law it infringers copy right laws etc etc, the simple fact is i will not pay rip off prices for stuff that is only very avreage in quality or value for money so untill things change people will continue to download things they want (imo)